Is the Jets' Salvation on the Sideline?

49ers Backup Smith A Potential QB Option

Alex Smith lost his job as the 49ers' starting quarterback, but he could make sense for the Jets, who want to create competition for incumbent Mark Sanchez.
Getty Images

By

Mike Sielski

Jan. 29, 2013 8:12 p.m. ET

NEW ORLEANS—The San Francisco 49ers' other quarterback stood in the middle of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome here for a long time Tuesday, fielding question after question about what it was like to lose his job.

When the bacchanalia of Super Bowl media day began, Alex Smith was waiting for a Sirius XM radio producer to cue him for the start of an interview. He wore his red 49ers jersey and a pair of black headphones with earpieces shaped like coffee rolls, and he maintained a countenance of complete serenity. He said nothing for several seconds.

Then the interview started and ended, and for an hour afterward the questions never stopped: Do you regret telling the team you had a concussion? How did you feel when you learned Colin Kaepernick was the starter? How do you feel now?

He answered them all except one: Have you given any thought to where you'll play next season?

"That stuff can wait," he said. "There's plenty of time for that stuff in a week."

Even after Smith was cleared to play two weeks after sustaining a concussion Nov. 11 against the St. Louis Rams, coach Jim Harbaugh kept Kaepernick in the starting lineup—a decision that has had the effect of a thunderclap for the 49ers and several other teams around the NFL, the Jets among them.

Now that Kaepernick has the 49ers on the brink of a title, Smith is unlikely to be back with them in 2013. And for the Jets, who want to create their first full-fledged quarterback competition since drafting Mark Sanchez in 2009, Smith would seem an attractive option.

Actually, according to Larry Kennan, a longtime college and pro coach who tutored Smith before the 2005 draft, Smith would be a significant upgrade over Sanchez.

"He's physically considerably better," Kennan said. "I think he's a better thrower, a better athlete. If I had to choose between the two of them, it wouldn't be close for me."

After five years characterized by frequent injury and mediocre play, Smith in his two seasons under Harbaugh finally lent validation to his selection as the No. 1 pick in 2005. Over 25 starts, he threw 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, leading the 49ers to the NFC title game last season and completing 70.2% of his passes this season.

But Smith was regarded mostly as a game manager; the foundation of the 49ers' offense remained the running game. And when Kaepernick—faster and possessing better arm strength—lent the offense a dynamism that Smith didn't, Harbaugh flouted the conventional wisdom that a player shouldn't lose his starting spot because of injury.

So where does that leave Smith? He signed a three-year contract extension in March and is due a base salary of $7.5 million this year. That $7.5 million, however, isn't guaranteed until April 1, according to Spotrac, a database that tracks pro athletes' salaries, giving the 49ers two months to trade or cut him.

For a team (such as the Jets) that might be interested in acquiring Smith, it will then become imperative to answer a core question about his career: Is his recent improvement merely the product of Harbaugh's influence?

While praising Smith for how he has handled his demotion, the 49ers don't do much to hide their belief that he has a ceiling as a quarterback—and that he had hit it. "Alex needs to have good players on the team," said Greg Roman, their offensive coordinator. It is a view that's common around the NFL.

"His numbers are very efficient. I don't look at him as a playmaker, though," said former Jets offensive tackle Damien Woody, now an ESPN analyst. "He's not going to bring that extra element to play that position…He doesn't have that wow factor to him."

The Jets, though, have another factor to consider: They will have a new offensive coordinator next season in Marty Mornhinweg. Mornhinweg is one of the NFL's leading purveyors of the West Coast offense, a strategy devised by Bill Walsh that is predicated on a quarterback's ability to make quick reads and short, accurate throws.

Smith played in a variation of the system in San Francisco. Sanchez has never played in it, and he recently called former NFL coach Steve Mariucci—a friend and former colleague of Mornhinweg's—to learn about the offense and how Mornhinweg deploys it.

Mariucci said Tuesday that Sanchez would be a "perfect West Coast quarterback…He's got enough savvy to be very good in that system. He's got the physical qualifications for it."

The statistics don't really bear that out: Sanchez's completion rate has never topped 56.7% in any of his four seasons with the Jets. Over that same period, Smith has completed 62.5% of his passes and gone 27-17-1 as the 49ers' starter.

Yet there he was Tuesday, standing on the floor of the Superdome with a crowd of interrogators around him, the quarterback who is at once in the Super Bowl and outside of it. "Just being ready for the next opportunity—that's what I can control," Smith said. "Things happen in sports. This is the deal."

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.